Group items tagged

BILLINGS - An event dedicated to supporting those who have lost loved ones to suicide, the Out of Darkness Community Walk in Veteran's Park, brought awareness of suicide to the Billings area. The annual walk is the primary fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Suicide claims 36,000 lives in the United States each year. Montana owns the highest rate of suicide in the nation.

Click here to register!What:Many schools and communities are struggling to find effective ways to prevent both bullying and suicidal behavior among youth.  This webinar will provide the latest research and science on the relationship between bullying and suicide and will outline some of the shared risk and protective factors. The webinar will also discuss the main principles of a comprehensive whole school approach to bullying prevention. This presentation will be interactive, with opportunities to ask questions. Objectives: Participants will: 1.     Recognize the complex relationship between bullying and suicide. 2.     Understand key research findings related to effective bullying prevention approaches. 3.     Identify ways to integrate both bullying prevention and suicide prevention into school violence prevention initiatives.When:Thursday, February 2, 20121:00-2:30 p.m. Mountain TimeContact:Tiffany KimPhone: 202-572-3717Email: tkim@edc.org

The Journal of Adolescent Health released a special issue focusing for the first time on the relationship between bullying and suicide.  The special issue was assembled by an expert panel brought together by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The panel looked at the latest research that examined youth involvement in bullying as a victim, perpetrator, or both and found them to be highly associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors.  The panel also examined the association of youth involved in bullying who experience suicide-related behaviors and other risk factors for suicide, such as depression, delinquency, physical and sexual abuse, and exposure to violence.

The numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, just the worst of it.But the organizer for a statewide suicide prevention conference held in Helena last week said the event increased people’s awareness of suicide and informed them of programs and training available to help reduce Montana’s suicide rate, which was third in the nation in 2010.“This is just one piece to help address the suicide rate in our state,” said Dr. Len Lantz, who organized the event and specializes in general psychiatry with a sub-specialization in child and adolescent psychiatry.

What: The Suicide Prevention Coalition of Yellowstone Valley (SPC-YV) is supported by survivors, teachers, healthcare professionals, Native American leadership, clergy and community. With the generosity of a grant awarded through the Montana Mental Health Settlement Trust, we are hosting a Suicide Prevention Training on Friday, October 21, 2011 at the Mansfield Education Center in Billings, Montana. This is OPI approved and School District 2 has approved it for 7 hours toward MEA Trade Days. We plan to apply for Social Work, Councelor and Law CEUs as well. In addition, the training reaches out to the grassroots welcoming parents and other community members for their first time training on this issue. We are confident this will be an informative and crucial way to address the challenges of suicide in our greater community. When: Friday, October 21, 2011 Where: Mansfield Education Center Billings, Montana. Contact: Mike Yakawich spcoalitionyv@gmail.com 406-254-2445

What:The Suicide Prevention Coalition of Yellowstone Valley is committed to community collaboration efforts to prevent suicide. Interested persons are encouraged to attend.When:Third Monday of each month from 12 to 1 p.m.Where:123 S. 27th St., Billings, MTRiverStone HealthBig Horn RoomContact:Michael YakawichEmail: yak.mike@gmail.com Phone: 254-2445.

The terrible toll of suicide is a symptom of systematic problems in our state. Lack of access to timely, effective mental-health care, shortages of mental-health professionals, lack of insurance and overwhelming stigma that makes people reluctant to seek needed care all contribute to suffering that all too often ends with suicide.Knowing that we have a problem is the beginning of understanding how to solve it. But action is needed on the state level to ease Montana's suicide problem.

"Montana's suicide epidemic is a public health crisis,” said Matt Kuntz, executive director of the Montana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.During 2010, at least 227 Montanans killed themselves. In 2011, the number was closer to 225. That’s about 22 people per 100,000 residents, nearly twice the national average.The victims are military veterans, American Indians, senior citizens and teenagers. Often, they are depressed and hundreds of miles from the nearest mental health professional. Even where they can get help, they tend to "cowboy up," afraid their illness will be seen as weakness.

While they seem like the least likely candidates, the elderly are killing themselves with greater regularity than any other age group in Montana. That’s also true across the country, eroding the myth that teens run the highest risk of suicide.

Montana’s mental health safety net is full of holes.Stigma, lack of insurance, Medicaid restrictions and a shortage of mental health professionals all contribute to the “state of despair” that reporter Cindy Uken has been detailing in a Billings Gazette series on suicide. The state’s suicide rate — the highest among the 50 states and double the national average — is cause for alarm. Yet it isn’t the only terrible symptom of Montanan’s mental health care gap.

Download the the link for full information right here! (PDF)What:By the end of this continuing education, participants should be able to: Use new techniques to assess and assist patients with psychiatric disorders with suicide prevention, medication adherence, and medication management. Develop a process to evaluate patients with psychiatric disorders and/or chronic pain to ensure the effective and safe use of medications. The registration fees are as follows:$150.00 - All Healthcare Providers $50.00 - StudentsThe deadline for registration is April 6, 2012. There is a $25 processing fee applied to all late registrations and cancellations. No refunds will be granted for cancellations after April 6, 2012.When:Friday, April 13, 20128:00 am - 4:45 pmWhere:Mansfield Health Education Center2900 12th Ave. N.Suite 30WBillings, MTContact:Robert Parker Phone: (406) 237-4537Email: robert.parker@svh-mt.org

“I was banging my head against the wall,” the mother said. “What do I do next?” She frantically called support groups, therapy programs, suicide prevention lines, anybody, running down a list of names in a directory of mental health resources. “Finally,” she said, “somebody told me, ‘The person you need to talk to is Carolyn Wolf.’ ” That call, she said, changed her life and her daughter’s. “Carolyn has given me hope,” she said. “I didn’t know there were people like her out there.”

(GREAT FALLS, Mont.) - Senator Jon Tester is backing three bills to improve care for Montanans with mental illness and to reduce the state's suicide rate. In the wake of December's tragic shootings in Newtown, Conn., Tester is concerned about services available to individuals struggling with mental illness. His bipartisan Mental Health First Aid Act aims to help community leaders identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness.

The U.S. Department of Education will host the third annual Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit Monday-Tuesday, Aug. 6-7, 2012, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. The summit will focus on ensuring that anti-bullying efforts are coordinated and based on the best available research. Panels will highlight the connection between bullying and suicide, and ways to help students who bully others. Keynote speakers will include U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the First Lady of Maryland Katie O’Malley. In addition, there will be a special discussion between White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Cynthia Germanotta, mother of musician Lady Gaga. Additional details on the summit, along with the agenda, will be forthcoming.

Four years ago the Helena School District received a $5.3 million grant for the Safe Schools Healthy Student Initiative. Since the grant is in its last year, Youth Connections in Helena wants to get the word out to the community about all the programs the grant has allowed them to establish.

Mental illness at its worst can be debilitating and deadly and even at its best can create a “fog” so painful that you forget who you are. You’ve probably heard by now that 20 percent of the population has a mental illness and 6 percent of these individuals have a severe and disabling mental illness, or that Montana has been in the top five for suicide rates for over 35 years.